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Indian telecom operators are definitely making full hearted attempts to reach consumers. In today’s times when prepaid recharge vouchers are everywhere, MTS has gone a step further and has partnered with India post to make MTS recharge vouchers available across post offices in Chennai.

To start off with this new attempt to reach consumers, these vouchers will be initially available at 50 selected post offices and subsequently will cover all post offices in the city. MTS is sending SMSes to its customers in Chennai informing about this new tie-up. If wou have further information about this initiative then feel free to comment.

IDEA Cellular, a pan-India mobile operator seems to have quietly launched its GSM services in Kolkata. The launch without any big opening or inaugural ceremony. IDEA hasn’t released an official press release yet and we can’t even find the Kolkata circle listed on its website, but our reader from Kolkata have informed us that IDEA prepaid sim-cards are available to general public across Kolkata. We’ll bring our readers their launch plans and schemes once the official word is out, in the interim, if our Kolkata readers wants to add anything then feel free to do so.

When we talked about ‘Simply Reliance’ and IDEA ‘Diwali voucher’, we knew that the other big operators will soon follow and bring in similar tariff vouchers; here comes one from Airtel. Airtel’s new tariff voucher is called RC 62 and is focussed on reducing call rates for local and STD calls made across non-Airtel network.

This voucher is priced at Rs 62 and comes with an airtime of Rs 40 along with a validity of 180 days. This voucher will allow subscribers to make local and STD calls across Airtel network for 50 paise/min and across non-Airtel network for 60 paise/min. SMS and roaming tariffs will be standard. Although the voucher looks good, it suffers in front of RCom’s killer plan ‘Simply Reliance’.

BSNL has announced a new promotional offer for prepaid users in Kerala. Starting from today till Diwali i.e. October 17, a user will get 10 percent additional talk time on top-up recharges of Rs. 100, Rs. 200 or Rs. 500. In addition to this, users can also avail unlimited GPRS voucher that will cost Rs. 20 for one day or Rs. 199 for the whole month.

With the proliferation of social networking sites and to satisfy user’s urge to remain online 24×7, Tata Docomo has announced unlimited GPRS packs. The packs are similar to Aircel’s Pocket Internet that were launched few months ago. A user can opt for a 3-day pack costing Rs. 15 or go for a full month of unlimited freedom for just Rs. 95. However, there’s one important thing to know. These packs won’t work on roaming. In simple words, you’ll be able to access the internet but will be charged 10p/10kb.

Activating the GPRS pack is simple. Go to a retailer to recharge your account with the GPRS voucher and then SMS INTERNET to 52270 to receive the settings. Likewise, you can also set the settings manually. More on that here.

And yes, you can connect the phone to your laptop or desktop PC to surf the internet but with the speeds hovering up to 48Kbps, this doesn’t sound to be a good option.

If Tata DoCoMo’s 1paise/sec is a boon for heavy callers, they’ve come out with another offer to please avid texters. Launched in Kerala, the SMS offer will allow users to enjoy 100 local and national SMS everyday for free. The only catch here, which we think is a reasonable one is that the user needs to send a message to a local or national number that will be charged at 60 paise and Rs. 1.20 respectively. The offer is applicable to pre-paid users and will be valid till November 25.

We Say: Tata DoCoMo is trying every ploy to take on the competition and needless to say, such a scheme will enable them to add more connections. Let’s hope they roll this offer in other circles too.

MTNL Mumbai has reinitiated its Loyalty Program with a new bait for the existing customers. Existing Trump/Dolphin/landline users can now avail a free Lifetime Trump prepaid connection. The free card will give a talktime of Rs. 20 along with the lifetime validity. The user can get a free connection by submitting the prerequisite documents at MTNL Area Service Centres only.

Tata Indicom launched the RCV 1100 Prepaid plan for its users in the NCR region. In line with Tata Indicom’s great value for money plans, this one too will not let you down. Here is a look at its components:

Cost: Rs.1100

Talktime: Rs.996.74

Validity: 101 days

Free Incoming calls for a year

1100 minutes of local Tata to Tata calling FREE

The plan has been launched by the operator in order to retain its position (2nd) in the circle.

We Say: Firstly, the plan gives users a good talktime amount – Rs.996 for the amount they are paying. Also, this plan would work wonders for users who talk on-net (T2T) more than calling other networks. Overall, the plan does not have any cons and offers good value for money.

Reliance CDMA users in Uttar Pradesh have even more reasons to cheer. RCom has launched a couple of prepaid plans targeting CDMA plans who feel the need to make STD calls to other Relaince users. The two recharges targets users who buy bulk recharges, evident by their recharge values of Rs.2,222 and Rs4,444.

The former i.e. 2,222 gives users free local and STD talktime to other RCom users of 500 minutes every month for 12 months. The latter too gives users the same amount of free minutes each month, not for 12 months, but for lifetime. Overall the plans look quite great but we the operator would surely charge the users more for calls to other operators.